On my recent flight back from Napa this weekend, I discussed this topic with a close personal friend of mine who is also a custom installers.

The issue is: despite the fact that Kalidescape is currently an SD server (with Blu-ray promised by 1/09) and their now-gone legal issues - is this very expensive system the best in AV convergence.

The Pros:
- Their meta data is CLEANER than ANYONES by a country mile
- Their user interface can only be compared with Apple - its SO good.
- They do music and movies
- The multi-room functionality was WAY ahead of its time
- Its a closed ended system

The Cons:
- Its not HD
- Its REALLY expensive
- Other systems are way more easy to configure for future use and other tricks (think LIFE-WARE)
- Its REALLY expensive.

My vote: the Kalidescape is the best media server on the market EVEN with its price. Dealers can sell it and client's LOVE it. Its easy to use and the fact its a close ended system only makes things less likely to get messed up. Imagine your 12 year old downloads a virus on your media center PC? Great.

What say you on this matter? Is Kaliedescape worth the money? Would you rather use Apple TV if things have to be SD and use iTunes for music and movies? They have one hell of a media store?